FAST FOOD

Freymann’s parade of inventively carved and combined fruits and veggies rolls on, this time demonstrating modes of travel. He starts with feet (actually mushroom stems) of course, and continues through skates and scooters, a wheelchair, skis, automobiles, a fire truck, a passenger train with cucumber cars, boats, planes and finally a carrot/rocket orbiting an unaltered cantaloupe that, just as it is, looks remarkably moonlike. Wheels are slices of jalapeño or radish; a sea of cabbage floats boats made of pea pods, scooped out banana peels and a watermelon steamer. Who won’t smile at the banana airplane, squash blimp or romaine-leaf sail? Accompanied by a bouncy rhyme—“By foot, on wheels, by air or sea, / I hope that soon you’ll visit me!”—these vehicles and their delightfully lifelike passengers will inspire laughter and admiration in equal measure. (Picture book. 5-7)